Youth Research Dialogue
A First Sneak Peek – RAY Monitoring Surveys
The first Youth Research Dialogue in 2026 took place on 23 February.
In this episode, we shared a very first sneak peek into findings of the second survey cycle, implemented in the current programme period of Erasmus+ Youth and the European Solidarity Corps. Over the past 15+ years, more than 125.000 project participants and close to 30.000 project team members have participated in the RAY Monitoring surveys and given voice to their experience.
Andrea Horta and Andreas Karsten from the RAY transnational research team joined us for this dialogue. We talked about very first findings, including the motivation of young people, youth workers and project team members to get involved in, as well as the engagement and learning of organisations with and through the European youth programmes. We discussed the impact on individual, community and society levels, related strengths of the programmes, but also weaknesses and challenges. Possible implications for policy, practice as well as the new generation of the programme were addressed as well. And last but not least – we shared some surprises (and surprising facts) with you!
Moderated by Tomi Kiilakoski and Domagoj Morić.
Live stream available
If you didn’t have the time to join or want to re-watch the Youth Research Dialogue again, just access the recording of the live stream here:
Speakers
>> Andrea Horta, RAY Transnational Research Team
Andrea Horta is a Berlin-based researcher working in the European youth sector at the intersection of research and policy at Youth Policy Labs, a small research agency and think tank. Her main research focus is on digital youth work and organisational learning in the context of the European youth programmes. Andrea has been part of the transnational research team of the RAY Network since 2020 and has a research background in neuroscience and psychology.
>> Andreas Karsten, RAY Transnational Research Coordinator
Andreas Karsten coordinates the transnational research team of the RAY Network for the research-based analysis of European youth programmes. He works for Youth Policy Labs, a small research agency and think tank in the youth sector, where he leads an international team of participatory research, public policy and open data aficionados.
Context RAY Monitoring Surveys
In 2008, the RAY Network was founded with the aim to contribute to quality assurance and quality development in the implementation of the European Union’s Youth in Action Programme (2007–2013). To that end, the initial network partners developed a framework for the first and core research project of the network: standard surveys for project participants and project teams. These standard surveys were further developed at the start of the next programme generation, Erasmus+ Youth in Action (2014–2020), resulting in this core research project on the research-based analysis and monitoring of Erasmus+ Youth in Action (RAY MON), and subsequently to the research-based analysis and monitoring of the European Solidarity Corps (RAY SOC). The monitoring surveys are still the core research undertaken in the RAY Network, they were further developed in the ongoing programme generation (2021-2027) and are regularly conducted and implemented in cooperation with currently all 34 RAY partner countries.
What are the Youth Research Dialogues?
The overall aim of the ‘Youth Research Dialogues’ series is to not only to make RAY research findings more accessible but also other European youth research studies and create a dialogue between researchers about their findings. The ‘Youth Research Dialogues’ series promotes different topics, e.g. inclusion and diversity, pandemic and youth work, digitalisation etc. In addition to researchers from the RAY Network, the ‘Youth Research Dialogues’ series features research colleagues from different global and European contexts and networks.